Letters: Sheridan Payne, May 13, 2016

When certain groups of people can’t get what they want by lawful, democratic means, they always resort to underhanded trickery. We are seeing this happening in the EU referendum debate.

At the heart of this battle are two key Government documents disgracefully presented as “facts” by the Government. First is its use of £9 million of taxpayers’ money to fund a leaflet full of misleading propaganda in which it states David Cameron has secured a special status for Britain in a reformed EU. Mr Cameron failed to get any reform of the EU – all he came back with was a useless bit of paper with a few temporary exceptions, all of which could be vetoed by European ministers later, if we vote to remain in the EU. The leaflet also claims that “We will keep our own border controls”, when the fact is that half of all our immigration comes from the EU and we have absolutely no control over that. Only by coming out of the EU can we regain the necessary full control of our borders. The second key Government document which is just as misleading, is the Treasury Study report on the referendum by Chancellor George Osborne. The Treasury backed UK entry into the European Exchange Rate Mechanism in 1990 which led to Black Wednesday and nearly ruined Britain.

In 2003, the Treasury wanted to join the Euro and forecast our trade would increase by 50 per cent. Mercifully we didn’t join and, given the cataclysmic failure of the single currency, the Treasury’s claim now looks ridiculous. The main reason why the EU wants us to remain is to continue to use us as a fat cash cow.

It is not right that billions of pounds of our hard-earned money should prop up such a grotesquely undemocratic body which is the EU.